Shanidar

Shanidar is a cave in northern Iraq where remains of Neanderthals have been found. The Neanderthals are thought to have lived about 60,000 years ago.

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Ralph Solecki discovered nine Neanderthal skeletons in the cave between 1953 and 1960. The skeletons have been labeled Shanidar 1 to Shanidar 9. The remains suggest that Neanderthals had funeral ceremonies, burying their dead with flowers, and that injured individuals were looked after by their fellows. Casts of the bones at the Smithsonian Institute are all that is left of the findings, the originals presumably having been dispersed in Iraq.

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Neanderthals: redirect Neanderthal...

Ralph Solecki: Anthropologist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He joined the faculty at Columbia University (1959?1988), and his best-known excavations were at the Neanderthal site at Shanidar Cave in Iraq. His publications include early works on aerial photography and photo-interpretation as well as two vol...

1953: 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday....